ARIZONA HISTORY MUSEUM EXHIBIT

Exhibition of colorful quilts on white walls at a resource library with a sign that reads 'RESOURCE LIBRARY'. A welcome sign at the entrance says, 'WELCOME QUILTS: MIGRATION, ART, & HOPE'.

The Arizona History Museum

From 2023 to 2024, the Arizona History Museum in Tucson, Arizona, hosted an extensive exhibit of Welcome Quilts. It also included several quilts made from drawings by newly immigrated children who were asked to draw what they loved, as well as paper drawings they made, some evoking the difficulty of their lives and journey. Eight of the Welcome Quilts featured messages from students in Patagonia, Arizona, explicitly in response to the artwork of those children. Other Welcome Quilts had messages from people all over the country. The exhibit tells The Storyof how all the quilts came to be. The Arizona History Museum exhibit of Welcome Quilts is available to travel to other institutions and venues. Contact: Jace Dostal, Statewide Collections Manager, Arizona History Museum, jdostal@azhs.gov.

A set of empathy-based activities to accompany Welcome Quilts was developed by Gale Hall, originator of the Welcome Quilt idea. The activities met K–12 Arizona educational standards. Many school classes toured the exhibit and took part in the related programming. These activities are included in the Toolkit, along with directions for making Welcome Squares and Welcome Quilts. Request the Toolkit

A red paper with printed text that reads, 'What would you miss if you leave your home?' and handwritten response, 'my yard, the sunsets, mom.'
Colorful notes pinned to a board with pushpins.

The Arizona History Museum Exhibit included interactive elements, such as small notes with questions about welcoming that visitors could answer and post on a magnetic board. Many hundreds were collected every week the exhibit was open. The museum also provided a Gallery Guide, a Resource Library of immigration-related books and materials, and facilitated a webinar titled “Quilting for Social Justice: The Cutting Edge and Soft Power of Creative Activism.”

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OTHER EXHIBITS & DISPLAYS

Minneapolis, Minnesota — 2026

In February 2026, given the intensity of the occupation by federal agents in Minnesota, we sent a Welcome Quilt to an Episcopal deacon in Minneapolis. He circulated it to a group of five churches there who were excited to display it.

A graph showing a downward trend with red dashed trend lines and a fluctuating data plot.

Four Quilt Exhibits in Missouri — 2026

Stemming from a presentation about Welcome Quilts at a Common Ground on the Border conference, Welcome Quilt exhibits and displays were held at The International Institute of Southwest Missouri, two churches, and a Springfield St. Patrick’s Day parade in Missouri.

Five Exhibits in Wisconsin: Eau Claire, Janesville, Madison, Sheboygan, and Merrill — 2024 to 2025

In late 2024, a local immigration committee in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, decided to create a Welcome Quilt exhibit as part of the national Welcoming Week, whose goal is ensuring that everyone belongs, including those who are not native born. They tailored the exhibit to their local community and the people who have immigrated who live in the area, borrowing some quilts from the Arizona History Museum and others from the Welcome Quilt Project. They created signs based on those in the original exhibit but creatively adjusted them to address particular concerns in their area. A pastor in Sheboygan read Lili’s Quilt as part of the children’s sermon. Groups in four other Wisconsin cities displayed the exhibit in various venues through 2025 and added quilts they had made locally as well—an example of how a good idea can spread!

Exhibiting quilts in Eau Claire, Wisconsin

An indoor exhibit of colorful quilted wall hangings on black metal stands in a room with white walls and wooden beams.
A graph with a wavy blue dashed line and a solid red line, with labels at the axes, possibly depicting a comparison or trend over time.

At a 2025 Los Angeles Diocese Episcopal Church Conference, two Welcome Quilts were displayed. Afterwards they were gifted to an immigration rights group in the city, called L.A. Sacred Resistance.

Gale Hall holding an open book with colorful illustrations and text that says 'Welcome' is standing in front of a quilt and a cross on a green and beige wall, speaking to an audience.

In 2025, Gale exhibited a Welcome Quilt at MIgration With Dignity Sunday at the Oro Valley Church of the Apostles in Arizona.

A red and black pie chart with the title "Figure 3" and the label "All employees" pointing to a large orange segment.

“A square of butterflies on the quilt represents new beginnings emerging from a cocoon, from the desert, from a life of struggle, and in the hope of something beautiful.”

—Rev. Jessica Braxton,
who has been using the Welcome Quilt idea in her parish, the Saguaro Christian Church

Saguaro Christian Church, Tucson, Arizona

In 2025, Jessica Braxton, a pastor of the Saguaro Christian Church, created a sermon based on the Welcome Quilt Project. As part of a Disciples of Christ summer program on immigration at her church, students from four states created Welcome Squares. They also participated in the accompanying empathy-based activities. A quilter in the church made the squares into Welcome Quilts that the students were able to take home to their parishes, along with deeper feelings about the issue of immigration.

Graph showing the relationship between temperature and conductivity over a range of values.

In summer of 2025, the The Episcopal Migration Caucus carried a Welcome Quilt while they held vigils during a pilgrimage to five immigrant detention centers along the U.S.-Mexico border, including the vigil shown here in Texas.

In 2025, a woman on Long Island who attended an immigration retreat heard about the project. She organized people to create Welcome Squares and put out a call for a quilter. They displayed the finished quilt at their church and now it is traveling in the area to other venues, including a library.

A graph showing data trends with a decreasing red dashed line across a black background.
Colorful quilt with nine panels of children's drawings and messages, including rainbows, animals, and inspirational words, framed by yellow, blue, and red borders.

In fall 2025, people in the Welcome Quilt Project read about a child care teacher in Chicago who had been arrested by ICE in front of her students, many of whom were immigrants themselves. We gifted a Welcome Quilt to the child care center.

Two colorful quilts with children's drawings hang on the walls above a beige sofa with purple and black throw pillows in a living room.

In 2024, the Border Community Alliance, a Tubac, Arizona, non-profit connecting people and cultures across borders created their own Welcome Quilt exhibit. They invited Gale Hall and India Aubry (Voices from the Border) to speak to their members about the project.

A black and white line graph with multiple colored lines and dashed lines, with no specific labels or context visible.

Quilts to the Haitian Community in Springfield, Ohio

In 2024, people in Green Valley, Oro Valley, and Patagonia, Arizona, as well as folks in New Orleans, Lousiana, made Welcome Quilts to send to Springfield which had become the center of anti-immigrant sentiment. Some people looked up words of welcome in Haitian Creole to use on their squares. In Springfield, quilts were displayed in a restaurant frequented by Haitians, at the Haitian Community Center, and rotated among several area churches Haitians attend. The priest in Springfield who facilitated delivery of the quilts said, “This is what love looks like in Springfield today.”

Group of women sitting around a bright green table engaging in arts and crafts activities in a colorful room.
A black background with red dashed lines forming smooth curves.

In 2023, a Chicago quilter attended a border conference on immigration and learned about Welcome Quilts. She returned home and made one with her grandsons. They displayed it in an art show in their synagogue and made their own sign explaining the quilt.

Gale Hall standing in front of colorful quilts at an indoor craft fair.

In 2022, Gale Hall exhibited a Welcome Quilt at the Southern Arizona Early Childhood Conference.

The image shows a chart with a black background and a blue dashed line, red dots, and multiple white horizontal lines.
Indoor event with display panels showcasing artwork and writing, a table with a black cloth featuring a large white mandala design, a clipboard with papers, and a jar labeled 'Donations' on top of the table, with ceiling fans and bright lighting in the background.

In 2022, Voices from the Border organized the first public exhibit of Welcome Quilts in Patagonia, Arizona, at the town’s annual Holiday Art Walk.